[DEBATE] : clinics and schools in Macleod's sights

[Richard Pithouse]

Neil Macleod, head of eThekwini who has just bought 5 million rands worth of UKZN academic and student labour, is worried about the lack of political support for disconnections and wants to 'normalise' the remaining schools and clinics that don't pay for water.

http://www.sundaytribune.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=160&fArticleId=3224574

By Xolani Mbanjwa

Durban residents are paying 5.5% more for water than they would be if the council could stem illegal connections and theft of the precious commodity.

Head of eThekwini Water Neil McLeod, in a report to the council's executive committee this week, said the city lost R65 million through theft and illegal connections.

This comes in the week that eThekwini water consumers were told they would have to bear a 7.5% water tariff increase in June. 

A huge contributing factor to this increase is that the municipality is losing 30% of its water each year, mostly through leaks which account for R191 million in losses and R65 million lost through theft and illegal connections.

McLeod said a three-year investigation concluded that the theft and illegal water connections meant that law-abiding citizens were paying 5.5% more for their water than they would if these practices were curbed.

McLeod said his department discovered that 2 400 government-owned properties in the former townships and other areas were not metered and had received water without paying a cent for years. 

These "high water volume users" included schools, churches, clinics, sports grounds, police stations, commercial properties and higher education institutions.

Many other areas, however, remained unmetered or unbilled, such as L-section in KwaMashu and large parts of Folweni. 

McLeod said unmetered and unbilled consumption accounted for 29 036 kilolitres of water a day. To curb this, the city had installed 12 000 meters for domestic consumers, with a further 25 000 properties targeted in the next 12 months.  


"Large numbers of unmetered connections and metered connections that are not on the billing system have been found and the laborious process of tracing the customers' details and putting them on to the billing system is ongoing," said McLeod.

He said there were 200 000 informal dwellings in the municipality and that every third one had an illegal water connection.

"Problems have been experienced getting political support to regularise these activities and councillors have been seen leading protests against the removal of these illegal connections."

It is estimated that 54 582 kilolitres of water are lost through leakages, mainly in the former townships, as a result of tampering with connections. 

Leakages were also blamed on the use of fibre cement pipes installed between 1948 and 1980 which could not sustain water pressure and burst. 

These have gradually been replaced over the past 10 years with further replacements expected to cost the municipality R550 million. 

At present the municipality is spending R10 million a year on replacing pipes, with Umlazi, Clermont, Umhlanga Rocks, Chatsworth, Queensburgh and the Bluff being the most affected areas. 

"To respond to the high level of unreported leaks, teams regularly sweep areas with high water loss to detect leaks timeously," said McLeod.

The loss of water was only reduced by 1% last year after losses had reached 31% of water used. The city is set to install zonal meters to help identify major leaks.



http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs

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